


as you truly are

by xerampelinae



Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 14:58:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13010232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xerampelinae/pseuds/xerampelinae
Summary: In a way he has forgotten the story he has just written; he simply wants to see his friend. And there she is. There she is, standing in weakening afternoon light, water lapping gently at her knees.





	as you truly are

Once upon a time, there was a kind duck who met a knight. They learned, as so many do, that they could be different from what others wanted them to be. To fight the great, monstrous Raven, the duck became a human dancer and the knight became a writer, that they could help the prince finally defeat the Raven and the curse he'd lain across the entire town. 

With the Raven’s death, the town was released from its transformations and the people returned to normal. All save the duck and the writer, living peaceably together along the lake, unable to forget the changes that they remembered that the townspeople had forgot. 

-

_“When that happens, I’ll go back to being just a bird, won’t I? I won’t ever study ballet with everyone again,” said the duck, as they danced._

_“That’s all right, isn’t it? That’s who you really are,” said the knight._

_“Yes,” said the duck._

_“Even after that time comes, I’ll stay by your side forever,” promised the knight._

-

Morning comes, as it always does: light slipping through the gap in the curtains. Fakir is so often distracted with words in the evening that it falls to Ahiru to close the curtains. 

The light slowly slides across the wall and then down to the pillow Fakir and Ahiru share. Perhaps an outsider might expect a more awkward performance of close cohabitation, but they had shared the bed since the first night after Drosselmeyer’s story ended, and the gentle, ginger brush of feather along his cheek drove back Fakir’s night terrors. There is no space for Fakir’s awkward fumbling on the pillow they share. Anyways, Fakir is sure that he is not the only one to wake in fear, not when he has woken to Ahiru shaking until he cups his hand against her side and soothes her, when he wakes with her still huddled into the shelter of his palm. It is easier to be strong together. 

Their mornings begin when Ahiru rises and compels Fakir to wake. With Mytho, Fakir had been the responsible one and would force himself up to prepare for class and rouse Mytho from his strange, deep sleeps. Now Fakir keeps both later hours and the company of Ahiru, and lets his tight grip on being responsible loosen.

Fakir is the one who prepares breakfast because, human qualities aside, Ahiru is still very much a duck. Once the washing-up is complete, it's time to run through the household chores or leave the house for the day. Ahiru helps out in her own way: directing sock rescues and giving small reminders. They leave the house together for errands or for Fakir to go to school and Ahiru the pond.

It is a bright afternoon, not a desperate, hollow midnight when Fakir writes the story. In a well-lit private study room in the Academy’s library, Fakir sits and lets words flow across the page. Once he begins, the window beside him provides no distraction. The story begins to take shape.

-

_Once upon a time there was a kind duck who was sometimes a girl, and sometimes even a princess. The duck loved to dance, but it truly was her kindness that nurtured the spell that let her transform. But just as stories end, so too do spells._

_To help an unending story end, the duck danced bravely through a cursed town, saving each of its inhabitants. And the duck who had been a girl and a princess both returned to her pond, accompanied by her friend, whom she had promised to stay with as she truly was until the end of her days._

_Then one golden day as the leaves began to turn, the duck realized that she was no longer truly a duck. She would not fly South this year, or any year. Where she was a bird, she was more swan-like; where human thought had grown, human thought had lingered and grown._

_As easily as the realization had come so too did the transformation. In the lake shallows where the duck had swum stood a girl._

-

It is early for Fakir to leave the library, but once Fakir sets down his pen he feels an overwhelming need to return home. He packs his loose pages of writing and his stationery and makes his way out of the building. By the time he reaches the street his strides are long and purposeful.

In a way he has forgotten the story he has just written; he simply wants to see his friend. And there she is. There she is, standing in weakening afternoon light, water lapping gently at her knees.

“Fakir,” Ahiru said, and in the shock of transforming again after so long, merely beams.

Time had not reduced Fakir’s capacity for a full-body blush, which commenced after a brief period of starry eyed wonder at not-quite reunion.

“You’re not wearing any clothes,” he says.

Ahiru sits down in the water and flushes as well. Some things do not change.

-

All Ahiru’s clothes and possessions were lost when the story had ended, and none of them return with her save the pendant. The lake is close to their home, but they are both reluctant to separate for Fakir to run home for a change in clothing. Instead Fakir awkwardly strips his blazer and blouse off, and stands in his undershirt as Ahiru dresses.

“I’m done,” Ahiru says softly.

“Here,” Fakir says, kneeling and offering his back. “You don’t have shoes.”

It speaks to the temperance their year as duck and student that Ahiru doesn’t argue and simply climbs onto Fakir’s back. Ahiru settles into place with an easy trust, arms winding carefully below Fakir’s throat; that first dance together, fumbling and aggressive, is far from thought. For his part, Fakir does not disappoint and lifts her as easily as he ever did. The afternoon shadows deepen as Fakir carries Ahiru home.

“Fakir?” Ahiru asks as he sets her down at the doorstep.

“Mm?” Fakir answers, thinking of the logistics of clothing Ahiru.

“Do you think--do you think this will last?”

Fakir pauses. “I hope so,” he says finally.

-

In the next few days, Fakir and Ahiru learn, in no particular order, that  
1\. Ahiru can transform between being a duck and girl at will;  
2\. Raetsel’s old clothes fit Ahiru quite well;  
3\. Fakir still requires Ahiru’s wake-up call;  
4\. they still both have nightmares, but sharing the bed still helps;  
5\. Charon has an undetermined degree of memory of Ahiru as Princess Tutu but approves of their cohabitation;  
6\. after their last dance, Fakir had all but foresworn pairs dancing;  
7\. Fakir has learned to ask for help, as he does of Ahiru when she tags along to the studio while Fakir works out the choreography on an assignment;  
8\. the magic is more than willing to fill in the gaps on their behalf, expediting Ahiru’s re-enrollment in the dance classes.

-

“Is this okay?” Ahiru asks, crawling into her usual spot on the bed and tucking herself below Fakir’s chin. They still share the pillow, lying so close that her breath warms his chin, and Fakir stammers and blushes until he can let out an affirmative. In the night the soft brush of fingertips along his cheek soothes him before he wakes from a nightmare and they sleep more easily from then/.

**Author's Note:**

> So, was this the fandom anyone was expecting me to write for next?  
> Shout-out to my best friend who I was missing and my dad, both of whom have watched Princess Tutu because of me. Special thanks to my dad, who similar to the half dozen viewings of Rogue with me, sat down with his sick daughter and her embroidery and watched 7? episodes straight. He's gonna be so excited when we hit the Dying Swan episode because his dad used to take him to the ballet (once to see ~~Anna Pavlova I think?~~ Maya Plisetskaya* San Diego fucking loved her.)  
>  Anyways, here's coming back to old fandoms. And to re-watching the rest of the series.  
> * 2/2/18 stealth edit because we finished Princess Tutu and did some research. I think my dad wants to go to the ballet sometime now


End file.
